Anonymous hacks Syrian president; His password was 12345

If we’re honest, many of us are likely guilty of using sub-par passwords. However, chances are, if we were hacked, no one but us would have to know about it. The same can’t be said for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who is facing public ridicule after his account was compromised.

It seems al-Assad recently became the target of web hactivist group Anonymous; the group managed to successfully hack into his email account this week. That said, we imagine the job was something of a bore for Anonymous, which just last week revealed that it had managed to eavesdrop on a phone call between Scotland Yard and the FBI. After all, it can’t have taken much hacking prowess to access an account protected with the world’s second weakest password: 12345. To make matters worse, Anonymous was also able to access 78 accounts belonging to al-Assad’s staff, with 33 of them using the same 12345 or 123456 passwords.

Forbes cites Israel’s Haaretz newspaper in reporting that the attacked the mail server of the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs overnight on Sunday. The breach has resulted in hundreds of emails from al-Assad and his staff being leaked. Among them was correspondence between Syrian UN Mission Sheherazad Jaafari and Assad’s media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban discussing preparation for the president’s interview with Barbara Walters.

Syria’s no stranger to the attention of Anonymous at this point. In August of 2011, the group hacked the government’s defence ministry. Just a few weeks later, they hacked into and vandalized several of the country’s government websites.